As a sales manager, having customers’ contact details is important if you want to shoot targeted marketing campaigns. But how do you store such a big database of contact information? This is where contact management software comes in.
Contact management software helps professionals from different areas, such as sales, marketing, and real estate, manage contact lists and track customer interactions. While there are several contact management solutions available on the market, finding a tool that doesn’t exceed your budget is the key. This article highlights, in alphabetical order, the seven top-rated free contact management software products based on verified software reviews. Read more.
The products highlighted in this list can be categorized under two categories—standalone contact management systems and tools that specialize in customer relationship management (CRM) or email marketing, alongside contact management.
1. Bigin by Zoho CRM
Bigin by Zoho CRM is a CRM tool that supports customer processes—from customer onboarding to managing support tickets, order deliveries, and after-sales operations. The software offers an add-on for Gmail that automatically captures contacts from your Gmail inbox to your CRM. With Bigin’s Gmail add-on features, users do not have to switch between applications to access customer data.
The free version of the software supports only one user with access to basic contact management features. However, if you are looking for advanced features, such as contact tagging, advanced search options, custom contact views, and synchronization with G-suite, you need to invest in the paid version.
Free featuresForm building: Create and share forms for a variety of purposes, including customer signups, online orders, and feedback collection. The software automatically creates a new record in your contacts list based on the data entered in the form and fills it into the appropriate stage of the relevant pipeline, such as customer support, testimonial, and IT asset request pipelines.
Import records: Import your contacts from a spreadsheet, CSV, or VCF file. The platform also offers import history for the past 60 days in its free plan.
Data security: Be rest assured that all your customer contacts and information are secured at all times. The software offers features, such as single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and GDPR and HIPAA compliance to protect your data.
Customer support options: Phone, email, and knowledge base
Who should consider Bigin?
Marketing or sales professionals looking for easy access to key information within their contact database and seamless transfer of contacts between systems can consider Bigin. The software offers various contact views, including list and Kanban views, to help users visualize contacts with relevant details. Moreover, it integrates with various Zoho applications, including Zoho Desk and Zoho Campaigns that facilitates seamless data flow between different systems.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade
Device compatibility
2. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is another CRM and collaboration platform that allows users to have unlimited contacts even in its free plan. The software lets you import contacts from Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, and vCard, and offers up to 1000 searchable contacts under the free version. You can search for the desired contact using their names, phone numbers, and email addresses.
While Bitrix24’s free plan supports unlimited contacts, the option to convert leads to contacts is only available in the paid plan. The paid version of the software, also allows users to export contacts to CSV, Outlook, and Excel.
Free featuresEmployee directory: Get a searchable list of employees—both past and present—their contact details, positions, skills, and other relevant data in a centralized directory. The software offers filters, such as position and branch to help you locate employee data.
Mobile apps: Download free mobile apps to manage contacts on the go. The software features mobile apps for both Android and iOS users, providing convenient access to contact management features.
Contact center: Connect different communication channels, such as live chat, Facebook, and Instagram to manage all customer data and interactions from a single dashboard.
Customer support options: Phone, email, and chat
Who should consider Bitrix24?
Small businesses with growing teams can consider this tool to cater to a growing customer base. With Bitrix24’s free version, users can add and manage as many contacts as required for their business without incurring any additional costs.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade
Device compatibility
/ Pro tip
Select a contact management tool with an interaction tracking feature to record and track interactions, including communication exchanges and engagements with your contacts. The feature may also include a comprehensive communication history for each contact that acts as a log of all past interactions.
3. EngageBay CRM
Yet another CRM solution with integrated marketing and sales support, EngageBay CRM offers users access to complete customer profiles, including their contact details, engagement patterns, and interactions. The software offers a 360-degree contact view that offers users access to customer information, including their contact details, points of engagement, and communication history on a single view page.
In its free version, EngageBay allows users to store and manage up to 250 contacts. However, the paid version supports up to 500 contacts in the basic plan and unlimited contacts in the pro plan. Also, the paid plans of the software—Growth and Pro, offer free onboarding sessions and a dedicated account manager other than email and chat support for users.
Free featuresContact segmentation: Refine your marketing campaigns using the segmentation feature offered by the tool. With this feature, users can group contacts, remove contacts from lists, and create automation to narrow down their marketing outreach to specific audiences.
Tag management: Add tags to contacts in EngageBay to organize your contacts. As an EngageBay user, you can also edit and delete these tags.
Contact filters: Sort your contacts using the basic filters offered by the software, which include contact source, name, email, tags, and location.
Customer support options: Phone, email, and chat
Who should consider EngageBay CRM?
Professionals, such as marketing managers, who wish to have a holistic understanding of their contacts and improve their marketing strategies can use EngageBay. The software offers users a comprehensive view of their customers' contact information, engagement levels, personal interests, lead scores, and conversation notes that can be useful in prioritizing leads, segmenting customers, identifying sales opportunities, and nurturing relationships.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade
Device compatibility
4. eWay-CRM
eWay-CRM is a CRM plugin for Microsoft Outlook that allows businesses to manage their contacts, sales, and marketing projects. The platform helps businesses keep their contacts organized and segmented, and relate them with projects, events, and companies. It also has a mobile app that allows users to access their address book from their smartphones, search through various criteria, and share contacts from eWay-CRM Mobile with other applications on their smartphones.
eWay-CRM supports one-way sync of contacts with Outlook in its free plan. However, if you wish to synchronize your existing Outlook contacts with eWay-CRM, you need to invest in the paid version of the software. This way, the changes made in your Outlook contact will affect the corresponding contacts in your CRM and vice-versa.
Free featuresContact database: Import your contacts from Microsoft 365 to eWay-CRM and build a single database for your contacts. Whenever you add a new contact or update an existing one, the software automatically ensures that everything is synchronized.
Companies module: Administer your business contacts using the companies module offered by the tool in its free plan. This module allows users to share company information, including contact details, specialization, and a summary of mutual activities, such as deals and projects with authorized users.
Email to contact conversion: Create a contact from your email simply by right-clicking the email in your mailbox and selecting the convert to contact feature from the dropdown menu. The feature is available on all platforms, including web and mobile devices.
Customer support options: Phone, chat, and knowledge base
Who should consider eWay-CRM?
Small businesses looking for a contact management system with customization capabilities can benefit from eWay-CRM. The CRM tool even its free plan allows for customization to adapt to the unique needs of small businesses. For example, it allows users to create custom fields, tags, and categories to categorize contacts based on specific criteria.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade
Device compatibility
/ Pro tip
Consider a tool that allows you to import all your contact data from multiple external sources into the software’s database. An ideal tool supports importing data from various formats, such as CSV, XLS, and VCF file formats. Certain tools may also offer data validation features to check for data duplication and accuracy while importing data.
5. Google Contacts
Google Contacts is a part of Google’s suite of web applications and a standalone contact management solution that allows Google users to store and organize contact information. You can use this tool to import, export, and synchronize contacts from other applications, such as iCloud and Outlook. Moreover, Contact’s integration with other Google services and applications, such as Gmail, Calendar, and other Google Workspace applications ensures consistent and up-to-date contact information wherever you go.
Google Contacts is a free tool available as a part of Google Suite. It is available as a web app, mobile app, or on the sidebar of Gmail, which is a part of Google Workspace.
Free featuresContact directory: Find and access contact information for individuals or groups within your organization. The platform offers a centralized database of contacts that are accessible and searchable within a specific domain.
Contact labels: Add labels, such as family, friends, and co-workers to your contacts or a group of contacts to segregate personal and professional contacts. You can use this feature to email multiple contacts at the same time and remove labels from contacts.
Merge and fix: Combine duplicate or similar contacts into a single contract entry using the contact merge feature in Google Contacts. With multiple contact entries for the same person, this feature helps users maintain an organized contact list.
Customer support options: Phone, email, and knowledge base
Who should consider Google Contacts?
Professionals using G Suite, including Gmail can use Google Contacts to organize and manage their contacts. It is free to use and works well alongside other Google applications. Remote teams within businesses can also use this standalone platform for sharing and syncing contacts due to its integration with Google services. This integration enables them to leverage contact information in various applications and streamline workflows.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade
Device compatibility
6. Really Simple Systems CRM
Really Simple Systems is a small business CRM system that enables users to locate and track customers, contacts, and interactions. The software offers Google Maps integration in its free plan that enables geolocation features. This integration helps users validate contact addresses and visualize the distribution of their contacts geographically, which can further be useful for sales team planning visits.
Really Simple CRM’s free version supports up to 2 users. If you are looking for multiple-user support with premium contact management features, such as email integration, VoIP telephony integration, and more than 100 records management, you need to purchase the paid plan.
Free featuresSearch and filter: Sort your customers’ data and search for the information you want using the search bar. The software also offers predictive search that allows you to search for details using keywords in the search box.
SSL encryption: Protect sensitive contact information from being accessed by unauthorized users. The software offers secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption to prevent unauthorized data interception, data breaches, and security threats.
Merge records: Copy or merge a contact to consolidate duplicate or redundant information. The tool allows users to merge two records at one time while preserving the information present in the destination record unless the field is blank.
Customer support options: Email, chat, and knowledge base
Who should consider Really Simple Systems CRM?
Businesses and non-tech savvy professionals looking for a contact management solution with multiple customer options in its free plan can consider Really Simple Systems CRM platform. The software offers several support options, such as email, online chat, video tutorials, interactive webinars, and even an online customer portal to address customer queries in its free version.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade
Device compatibility
/ Pro tip
Opt for a contact management solution that offers effective search capabilities to retrieve contacts based on various criteria. In a free tool, look for features that help you locate contacts by their names, email addresses, tags, phone numbers, keywords, groups, date of customer interaction, or other relevant fields.
7. Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns is an email marketing platform by Zoho that allows users to manage the email database of their leads and contacts. The software offers a topics feature that allows marketers to categorize their mailing list under different topics and enable contacts to select the type of email campaigns that they are interested in receiving. This feature helps them associate topics to their contacts as per their preferences, which further leads to a reduced number of complaints from contacts.
In its free version, Zoho Campaigns offer a limited number of users, contacts, and features. In case you need premium features, such as contact segmentation, scoring, and tags, you need to purchase the paid plan of the software.
Free featuresContact import: Import contacts from your local storage, including Excel sheets and CSV files or popular business applications, such as Zoho CRM and Salesforce into a mailing list.
Customizable sign-up forms: Embed sign-up forms on your site and add new contacts from these forms to your Zoho account. The feature can be used to expand your contact list and obtain additional contact information from customers, including their phone numbers and gender information via custom fields.
Third-party integrations: Integrate with your favorite Zoho application, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Contacts, Zoho Meeting, Zoho Desk, and Zoho Commerce, along with other popular tools, such as Salesforce and Eventbrite for seamless data synchronization.
Customer support options: Phone, email, and online FAQs
Who should consider Zoho Campaigns?
Sales and marketing managers looking for a cost-effective solution to manage the contacts in their mailing list can consider Zoho Campaigns. The software, in its free version, allows users to add and manage up to 2000 contacts and up to 6000 emails in a month. It also offers features, such as topics and sign-up forms to increase contact list and minimize unsubscribers.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade
Device compatibility
What is the cost to upgrade from free contact management software to a paid one?
Contact management software upgrades can be as low as $5 per user, per month, or increase up to $20+ per user, per month, depending on various factors—advanced features, number of users, storage capacity, deployment models, and customization options. Most contact management software typically includes the following subscription plans:
Free trial: No cost trial plans ranging from 14 to 30 days, giving users access to either all or limited features of the software.
Free version: Free software plans offer basic features and limited premium feature access; ideal for small businesses or individuals with a limited budget.
Entry-level: Starts at $5 per user, per month, and offers limited features; good option for small businesses or teams with basic features such as contact import/export, contact sharing, and contact labels.
Mid-tier: Mid-range pricing for contact software ranges from $10 to $17 per user, per month and offers features such as increased document storage, advanced search options, and email integration. Businesses that have outgrown their basic needs and do not require high-end features can opt for this plan.
High-end: Advanced plans go up to or beyond $20 per user, per month and offer unlimited contacts, unlimited data storage, contact scoring, and priority customer support along with entry and mid-level features. This is ideal for large enterprises.
Hidden costs associated with contact management software
Besides the software license itself, there may be additional costs associated with contact management software. These may include customization, data migration, training, additional users, priority support, technical assistance, and renewal charges. Small businesses should take these into consideration when considering a new tool.
Frequently asked questions when selecting free contact management software
Does the software offer mobile app support?
Before considering the best free CRM solution for your business, make sure that the tool has mobile apps for Android and iOS users. This will help you and your team to access contacts even on the go, track customer interactions conveniently, and collect real-time data to become more productive.
What are the data security features offered by the software?
Ensure that the free tool you select offers data security measures, such as access controls, data encryption, regular backups, and compliance with data protection regulations like the general data protection regulation (GDPR). These will help safeguard your customer data, which is vital to maintaining the privacy and trust of your contacts.
Does the software integrate with social media platforms?
Your free tool should integrate with social media platforms to ensure a positive customer experience. With social media integration, businesses can consolidate their contacts from different platforms into a single, unified database, and better connect with prospects and customers.